


A Prank in Heaven

by Yalu



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angels, Family, Fluff, Gen, Heaven, Humor, Kid Fic, Pranks, Sibling Love, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-17
Updated: 2013-08-17
Packaged: 2017-12-23 19:15:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/930097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yalu/pseuds/Yalu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabriel pulls the first ever prank in Heaven. Features kid!Castiel, kid!Anna and siblings being awesome. Cracky.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Prank in Heaven

Gabriel ducked out of sight just in time. Bethel was moving _fast_.

The matron, one of the oldest seraphs and charged with overseeing all the fledglings, swept past him in a flurry of anxiety and feathers. Gabriel tried not to laugh too loud. She had no _idea_ that the summons she'd just received wasn't really from Michael because helloooooo, Messenger of Dad anyone?

Michael wasn't around. Michael was three galaxies over, taking careful notes on a supernova for one of Dad's lessons in appreciating the beauty of the universe, so it'd take a good five minutes before Bethel found him, and maybe two more before she got back. Gabriel grinned - it was all he needed.

Taking care not to flap too loud, Gabriel came out of his hiding place and glided down to land among the fledglings. This lot were really young, barely able to fly short distances alone. Young - and _gullible_.

Bethel had told one of her underlings to watch over them of course, but that wouldn't be a problem. There were too many kids scattered around too big a space for one junior angel to keep track of them all. A nicely timed illusion of a sucking black void on the other side of the field scared a dozen of the very youngest into tears, and the underling rushed over to see what was the matter. He'd be busy trying to calm them down for a while.

(The void was one of Gabriel's personal favourites. There was nothing _nearly_ that scary in the light, white haziness of Heaven - he'd had to poke around in the event horizon of black holes for inspiration - and those fledglings were too young to get their heads around the difference between a real threat and the image of one.)

The lot he landed among were a bit older, still wandering around wide-eyed and awed by everything Dad made, trying out their wings and stumbling into each other. They were almost ready to start exploring the universe, but didn't have enough experience yet to be suspicious of anything. Perfect minions for his plan.

The kids looked up in awe when he landed, fluttering backwards and out of his way. They probably hadn't met any grown angels except their caretakers before - and definitely none like Gabriel. He and his brothers all had other stuff to do in the newly-formed physical universe and weren't around much, and Dad? Not to be found much of anywhere lately, except at Sunday dinners. So Gabriel grinned and knelt and invited them to come closer, and stretched out all six of his wings so they could get a better look (and if it hid them from view of their caretaker? All the better).

One of them - Channah? no, Anna - took the lead and slowly came up to him. "You're different from Bethel and the others," she said.

"Bravo, kid, You're pretty brave," said Gabriel. "And yep, I'm different. I'm an archangel." He lifted his wings grandly and made a flourishy little bow. "Gabriel."

"Lord Gabriel!" exclaimed another fledgling - uh... Zachariah, that was it. Zachariah dropped to his knees to bow formally and tugged on those nearest him to do the same. "We are to worship them as we do Father!" he hissed, and some of the others scrambled to kneel too.

How boring. Time to shake things up a little.

Anna was looking curiously between Zachariah and Gabriel, thinking, and she awkwardly stretched her wing out in front of the fledgling beside her to keep him from copying the others. "He doesn't want us to kneel, Castiel," she said quietly. Louder, she asked, "Why don't you want us to kneel?"

Gabriel felt a tug and looked down, and found little Balthazar shamelessly pulling a feather on his wing. "These are big," he said.

"I think we're supposed to kneel," Castiel said to Anna uncertainly.

"Do you sing to Father too?" asked another, Inias, coming closer with the rest of the herd. "Bethel says we must sing His praises every day."

"Bethel said every _dawn_ ," corrected Hester.

Zachariah tugged frantically at the others. "We'll be in trouble!"

"I don't think we will," Anna said calmly.

"But what about-?"

"Why do we sing?" asked Samandriel.

"Bethel _said_ -"

"Wow, kids, wow! Slow down!" Gabriel held up his hands and spread his wings (except the one Balthazar was still hanging onto), backing up a bit and bumping into more kids behind him. Huh. Maybe this would be harder than he thought. Or... maybe easier.

He put on a cheerful smile and turned to crouch by Inias. "Yep, we sing too," he said glibly. "All the time. In fact, that's why I'm here. How would you guys like to learn a new song?"

The fledglings brightened, even sceptical little Anna, and Gabriel grinned.

 

When Bethel returned, Gabriel was far, far away, out of sight, out of reach... Well, out of sight at least, lounging on a cloud above the creche and watching his masterpiece unfold. Michael would yell at him later, probably put on his disappointed face and give a speech again, but it'd be worth it. He'd probably have to stay well clear of Bethel for a while, too. Maybe a decade, if the kids remembered his lesson the way he hoped. So far, it sounded promising.

Chuckling, Gabriel rolled onto his back, stretched his arms and folded them contently under his head. "Gotta say, old boy," he told himself, "that was _not bad_ for the world's first prank."

"Eh, I think you could do better," said a voice behind him. Gabriel jumped and scrambled up to find-

"Luci!" He grinned. "So you saw?"

Lucifer laughed lightly and glided over, landing next to his brother and kneeling to look over the edge of the cloud with him. "It's a work of art, little brother," he said. "How did you ever come up with it?"

Gabriel shrugged hugely to cover his glee. "Got bored with our normal songs."

"They are pretty dull," agreed Lucifer. He looked back down at the chaos that used to be such a peaceful corner of Heaven. "Getting them to 'dance' was a nice touch."

With a cackle, Gabriel flopped onto his stomach to watch too. The kids were running wild as they sang, sprinting or flying in random directions as fast as they could, waiting until the last possible second before a crash to dart away ("Agility training!" Gabriel had told them). In the middle of it all, little Balthazar was madly waving his stolen feather and dashing to and fro trying to stick one of the others with it. He'd managed once so far, with Castiel, but Cassie had been too fast and spun to stick it back in Balthazar's hair before dashing to hide in a fort Hester and Samandriel were building from bits of cloud under Anna's direction. From what they could see from this angle, it was holding up pretty well.

"I wonder what Father will say," Lucifer said thoughtfully as Zachariah, banned from the fort, started to wail. Gabriel shrugged.

"Maybe if it makes him laugh he'll stick around a bit this time."

"Maybe," Lucifer said doubtfully. Then he grinned. "Or maybe it'll take something more interesting. Could you use a partner?"

Gabriel beamed and offered a hand. "Always, bro."

Below, Bethel started shouting, trying desperately to be heard over the cacophony of kids who hadn't learned to keep key or match tempo yet. " _What_ do you think you're singing? _Where_ did you learn this? _Where?_ " She grabbed one of her frazzled underlings. "What _happened_ here?"

But there wasn't much they could do. The kids' voices were ringing through Heaven, and what a masterpiece this new song was.

"This is the song that never ends! Yes it goes on and on, my friends. Some angels started singing it not knowing what it was, and they'll continue singing it forever just because this is the song that never ends! Yes it goes on and on, my friends..."


End file.
